Getting Better Work Life Balance

“The key is not to prioritise whats on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

Steven Covey

Hi Motivation Seekers, how are you? Have you had a good week? I hope things aren’t too stressful and full on for you with Christmas just around the corner. For some reason, the world seems to speed up, the closer it gets to the big day. So, I thought it might be a good time to share some tips on how you can get more balance in your life and feel less stressed.

The quote this week from Steven Covey is excellent. With most time management techniques, we do our list of what is to be done, then we prioritise it, but what is being said here, is that we identify our priorities, then schedule those into our daily/weekly/monthly calendars. This is real big picture thinking, which I love. It’s the big picture that’s going to get you reaching your goals, and achieving your dreams.

What I am thinking about for you, isn’t just about managing your work/business priorities, but extending that to your whole physical and mental wellbeing. Once we get everything aligned – body, mind and spirit, some magic starts to happen. Life becomes better and easier and we become more productive and calmer in our approach to life. Does that sound good? Is that something you would want for you? You might be saying yes, you do want this, but part of you might think it’s unachievable. You may have an ultra busy life, you have a demanding business, children to be cared for, elderly relatives to look after, little spare time for you and/or for the things you love. Let me reassure you, it is possible, you just need to know where to start and I’m here to help.

Life/Balance Review – click here for the life balance review which is an excellent worksheet to help identify what your priorities are. The first time I ever did this exercise it was a real eye-opener for me. I discovered that my life was almost totally driven by work and career. There wasn’t any time for me, for socialising, exercising or just goofing off and having fun. Those are all essential to a healthy mind and body, which in turn makes for a more productive and capable employer/employee. This is absolutely vital for those of us in business, if we don’t look after ourselves, we can’t run our businesses. Ironically though, that is usually the last priority for business owners.

Set Priorities – from the above exercise, look at the results and focus on the areas that need the most work or improvement. Let’s not be too ambitious with this though. For example, if you haven’t exercised for the last 10 years, you will need to take baby steps to begin again. That way, you slowly and sustainingly build on the things you know you need to be doing.

Clarify your vision – Think of the end result of what you want from all this. Take time to visualise it and/or write it down. Give it a timeline. For example, if you want to become fitter and healthier, be really specific about what that would look like and when you think you could achieve this. The clearer you can become about what it is you want, the more likely it will be that you can achieve it. It is especially powerful to have a visual of this, as it tricks your brain into believing it!

Set SMART goals – write down some SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timed) goals that will ensure you achieve this vision. I like to get clients to work backwards from their vision. So if the vision is to be achieved in a year, what needs to be done in the final quarter, the quarter before that and so on, then you can identify what needs to be achieved within the following month, back down to the week and days. Then before you know it, you have scheduled all your priorities. Steven Covey would be proud of you!

I hope this helps in the last couple of weeks before Christmas. I will be writing the last Motivator for 2019, next week. Get in touch click here during the week and let me know if there is anything you would like me to cover on the last Motivator. Have a fabulous week.